Usonian Houses: Everything You Need to Know About Frank Lloyd Wright’s Affordable Homes

Photo: Courtesy of Currier Museum of Art

Built-in shelving. Wood-paneling. A connection with nature. These are just a few of the still extremely desirable qualities of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian houses. Designed and built in America between the 1930s and 1950s, these homes represent the architect’s vision for a more affordable form of organic architecture. Compared to Wright’s most well-known structures—like the sculptural spiraled interior Guggenheim building, for instance—the Usonian homes are remarkably simple at first glance. Still, they demonstrate a profound sensitivity to their sites and a dedication to everyday beauty. “His definition of simplicity was open to interpretation,” says John Waters, the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy’s preservation programs manager. “He was not afraid of complexity, it was about getting down to the idea of the building.” Below, AD covers everything you need to know about Usonian houses.

What are Usonian Houses?

After decades of building homes largely for the affluent, following the Great Depression, Wright wanted to come up with a design system that would be accessible for the American middle class. His residences that were meant to be affordable and democratic in design came to be known as Usonians.

Though Usonians were never truly cheap or low-cost in the way that kit homes of the era could be—and the prices also tended to inflate as the construction progressed—they were reliably lower-cost than his earlier homes. It’s an apples to oranges comparison, but at a glance, the Robie House (a 9,063-square-foot Prairie style home built in 1909) cost $58,000 (including the cost of the land) while the Jacobs House (a 1,560-square-foot Usonian built in 1936) cost $5,000 as a quick comparison. Accounting for inflation, this is about the difference between $2,009,610 and $113,417 today.

What does Usonia mean?

Though there is some confusion over the specific meaning and attribution of the term “Usonia,” Wright used it to mean “of these United States,” per an issue of Architectural Forum in which the architect presented illustrations of a home in the Usonian style.

How many Usonian houses are there?

There are roughly 60 residences that are considered Usonian scattered across the United States. Most were completed between the 1930s and 1950s and many are located in the Midwest, though there are also examples in California, New York, Texas, New Jersey, Oregon, and beyond. In 2013, Florida Southern College constructed a Usonian on its campus based on plans Wright had made in the ’30s for the college that went unconstructed.

Architectural Characteristics of Usonian Houses

The characteristics of Usonian homes varied depending on the specific budgets of Wright’s clients and their sites, but the below list represents the most common attributes of his Usonian designs.

• Flat roof

• Natural materials

• Natural light via ample windows

• Carport instead of a full enclosed garage

• No basement

• Open floor plan

• Overhangs

• Radiant heating via concrete slab flooring

• Single-story

• L-shaped layout

Most were also relatively small, often around 1,200 square feet with 2–3 bedrooms.

What is the difference between a Usonian house and Prairie style?

At a glance, the Usonians have fewer of the expensive decorative details, like stained glass for instance, than the Prairie homes often have. They’re generally much smaller than the Prairie period homes as well.

The Prairie period was earlier in Wright’s career, while the Usonians reflect the architect’s desire to rethink building tradition more radically. “Wright developed a whole system of building for the Usonians. With the Prairies, he was doing really interesting things, but he was generally using fairly traditional building systems: stud walls, stucco, things like that,” says Waters. “With the Usonians, he really developed a whole building system. Typically, in what we think of as the classic Usonians pre World War II, the walls are made up of a sandwich structure that consists of horizontal boards on the interior and the exterior and then a central layer which is either vertical planks or plywood. He saw this as a more efficient way of building.”

Notable examples of Usonian Houses

The Jacobs House in Madison, Wisconsin (also known as the Jacobs I)

Located about an hour from Wright’s home and studio, Taliesin, the Jacobs House is considered the first Usonian home. “The home that set it all off is the first Jacob’s house in Madison,” says Waters. “Everything that was going to be in the Usonians, in terms of the basic ideas, are all found in Jacobs, the first full Usonian.” Completed in 1937, it is the first of two homes Wright designed for his clients Herbert and Katherine Jacobs. The building was added to the World Heritage list in 2019 and is still a private residence.

The Zimmerman House in Manchester, New Hampshire

Commissioned in 1949 by clients Isadore J. and Lucille Zimmerman, the Zimmerman House was curated in detail by Wright, including the dishes and artwork. The home was bequeathed to the Currier Museum of Art and is now available for tours.

The Pope-Leighey House in Alexandria, Virginia

Built in 1940, the Pope-Leighey House is named for its original owners (the Pope family) and the owner that saved it from demolition in the ’60s, Marjorie Leighey. The 1,200-square-foot home is open to the public for tours from April to December.

Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest

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